An occasional glimpse into the workings of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive (or comments on anything else that takes my fancy).

22 April 2010

How the world works

Let us suppose that an act of god, a flood or a volcano perhaps, caused you to miss your Ryanair flight. Or maybe it was an act of government, such as a collapsed bridge or being arrested for some reason. How would you rate your chances of getting a refund from Ryanair? Yeah, me too. Oh no, they would say, we have rules about these things and the terms and conditions were clearly (allowing for the small print) set out when you booked your flight.

But now the boot's on the other foot and the rules can simply be ignored. The Guardianreports:

The budget airline Ryanair today sparked a furious response from politicians and risked a consumer backlash by refusing to pay the hotel and food bills of passengers stranded by the volcanic ash cloud, in a blatant refusal to abide by strict EU consumer rules.As Britain's skies opened for business at last after a catastrophic six-day shutdown, the carrier's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, told passengers his airline would not meet hotel and subsistence expenses incurred while they were stuck abroad. Ryanair would reimburse travellers the original price of their air fare and no more, he said.

2 comments:

Michael Bishop
said...

In fairness to Ryanair, it seems ludicrous that airlines should be expected to bear costs that arose through absolutely no fault of their own. They didn't set off the vocano,they didn't close the skies and the airports. It is one thing for airlines to pay expenses when they delay/cancellation is caused by faulty airplanes but not for uncontrollable 'acts of god'.